News update: What Bush 41 says to 43

Many of us have wondered about the relationship between the first President Bush, George H.W., and the second President Bush, George W. Specifically, does Bush, Sr., (known as 41 in the family because he was the 41st president) ever take Bush, Jr., (known as 43) aside and say: What the heck do you think you’re doing? You’re ruining the family name! Wake up and smell the roses!

Or words to that effect.

This morning the New York Times has a few answers. The paper says that 41 suffers when people criticize 43 to his face. “It wears on his heart,” says one longtime adviser to 41, “and his soul.”

The New York Times reports:

“These are distressing days for the Bush family patriarch, only the second former president in American history, after John Adams, to see his son take the White House. At 83, he finds it tough to watch his son get criticized from the sidelines; often, he likens himself to a Little League father whose kid is having a rough game. And like the proud and angry Little League dad who cannot help but yell at the umpire, sometimes he just cannot help getting involved.”

While the White House suggests that 41 only gives advice when asked, the paper says the relationship is more “complicated,” with 41 expressing his irritation with some of 43’s aides and, at times, urging them to seek outside council, specifically from 41’s circle of advisers.

Still, when all is said and done, 41 stands behind his son:

“Late last year, at the aircraft carrier christening, he grew emotional again, this time with President Bush in his presence. Before a crowd that included political luminaries from both administrations, as well as dozens of family members and friends, the father made a point of saying he supports his son ‘in every single way with every fiber of my body.'”